Tuesday Night...

Holy Crapola...I logged into the scoreboard tonight and there was Bobby Hucul online. Don't think I've ever seen that this year. Well done Bob.

I watched some of the OKC vs. LAC game tonight. Two very good teams. Blake really impressed me. He's really expanded his game this season. Even if his scoring and rebounding are down a bit this season he's upped his stocks (61 steals and 28 blocks) this year. He already has more steals this year (in 42 games) than he did all of last season (66 games). He's an emerging fantasy force. Benny will have a big Halifax woody when he sees this box score and what Durant and Griffin combined for. And don't forget his super rookie Andre Drummond has another double double in half a game tonight. There are rumors that the Showers and the Offs were discussing a Drummond trade but nothing has materialized to date.

The Wack is now 1st in 4 categories and 2nd in another (BLK) and 4th in rebounding. He remains 13th in ATO. Currently, the Wack is at 1086 points. Assuming the Offs stay in 13th in ATO, Benny really only has another 58 possible points to gain (13 in blocks and 45 in rebounds). Think about that for a second. His max total is really 1144. This Offs team is dominant right now.

Benny also made a good observation about his team being 1st in steals and last in ATO. I don't believe this has ever occurred in the history of the JBL as typically the 2 categories go hand in hand.

My email must not be working right. Ersan Ilyasova just went for 27 and 16 and I don't have one Jeff Green offer from Idaho?? Something's not right here.

Today I watched the Sacramento press conference led by Mayor Kevin Johnson and there furious last minute attempt to keep the Kings. I don't think it's going to work and it appears too little too late. It's a shame really because from everything I've read and seen on TV the Kings fans are loud and proud. Remember their 'glory' days when they Webber, Divac, Bibby, Christie, et al and were challenging the Lakers? Those crowds were awesome. All that being said, I'm glad the Sonics appear to be back. It's too bad they aren't getting much of  a team but I'm sure a new GM and new Coach will shake that roster up. I wonder how many guys will be left? I wonder who the new GM will be? And is there anyone other than Nate McMillan on the coaches list?? I mean he coached the Sonics for 5 seasons; he's currently looking for work; he's coached with USA basketball; his #10 Sonics jersey is in the rafters. To me, it's a no brainer - the head coach of the 2013/14 Sonics should be Nate McMillan.

Looking at the JBL standings there are actually a number of interesting races...
- Benny's Offs vs. the JBL.
- Arctic vs. Juan for 3rd place is shaping up nicely
- 5th thru 8th changes nightly (this is the 600 club)
- Seoul vs. Bangkok is always entertaining
- 9th thru 12th is also tight (the 500 club)
- and the basement watch is on with French (currently at 393 points). We all know a 13th place finish means no keepers for French.

Saw the box score from the Washington vs. Portland game last night. Martell Webster had 24 points. Brussels acquired him from French for no one. Good deal for Tim.

The PHX Suns are a mess. They promoted Lindsey Hunter as their new head coach. He has no coaching experience. This move pissed off Dan Majerle (long time asst. coach) so much that he simply walked away from the team. Elston Turner, another lead assistant with PHX, has also skipped all 3 practices since Hunter was appointed Head Coach. Today, Jermaine O'Neal got in a shouting match with GM Lance Blanks. Dragic is not happy as he came to PHX because of Coach Gentry. Hunter is apparently in love with his #13 rookie pick Kendall Marshall and plans to use him at PG and slide Goran Dragic over to SG more even though Marshall has been average in the D-League this season. I can't wait to see how they look on Wednesday night. The only saving grace is that they play Sacramento on the road.

I've started to scan rosters for potential keepers for next season already. I mentioned some of those potential keepers in my last post. Today, I came across a name that I didn't really think about as a keeper - but maybe I should. I read this players stats and then tried to find someone with similar numbers and also compared their JBL salaries. Check this one out and see what you think.

Player A - 14.7 PPG, 7.0 REB, 50% FG, 1.21 ATO, 43 STL, 38 BLK
Player B - 15.4 PPG, 7.4 REB, 45% FG, 1.04 ATO, 30 STL, 20 BLK

I think we can all agree that Player A is the better player here. Better FG% and ATO and more steals and blocks. But Player B certainly holds his own and puts up a decent line. And in this case it's for a third of the price. Player A's JBL salary is $26 bucks and Player B's salary is $8 bucks. Player A is Kevin Garnett and Player B is Big Baby Davis. Is Big Baby a keeper candidate? Maybe. It depends on what ORL is going to do with their roster this offseason. Will he still be in Orlando? Do they want to continue to start him or will they turn to their youngsters (Nicholson & Harkless)? I guess I'll have to wait and see...

Let me throw some middle tier potential keepers at you....see what you think.

Nicolas Batum $30 bucks. 17ppg, 6reb, 43/35%, 60 steals, 43 blocks. Is he worth $35?
Eric Gordon $22 bucks. 20+ PPG scorer with a history of injuries??
Zach Randolph $21 bucks. 16 and 12 and 48% FG.
Tim Duncan $31 bucks - can he do it again next year? 17 and 10 with 114 blocks so far.
Thad Young $33 bucks - 15ppg, 7reb, 52% FG, 66 steals, 40 blocks. Very similar #'s to Batum.
Joakim Noah $34 bucks - 12 and 11. 51 steals and 82 blocks.
Kevin Love $44 - will he be healthy? Can he find his shot? Avg'd 18 and 14 while shooting 35/21.

Well, that's it for me tonight...
I will leave you with the opportunity to pick the topic of my next blog post. 1st response to my inbox with a JBL-related topic gets my next blog dedicated to you. So, for my 3 readers, what do you want to see me rant about?